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Exalted: The Awakening Adversaries
If you are one of my players, you have reached a page you should not be at. You should stop reading and get out now. =Enemy Template= *'Motivation:' *'Aspect/Caste:' *'Anima Banner:' *'Attributes:' Strength 1, Dexterity 1, Stamina 1; Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1; Perception 1, Intelligence 1, Wits 1. *'Virtues:' Compassion 1, Conviction 1, Temperance 1, Valor 1 *Backgrounds: *Charms: *'Join Battle:' *'Attacks:' **Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy , Damage B, Defense , Rate 3 **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy , Damage B, Defense -, Rate 1 *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: ' / Willpower: *'Essence: ' *'Personal Essence:' / Peripheral Essence: *'Committed Essence:' *'Intimacies:' *'Other Notes:' =Storm Fight Enemies= The Storm Fight is going to be a middling battle. A great leviathan (though not Leviathan himself) is awakening from under the surface. Unfortunately for him, he's been infested by beasties from the Wyld he had to travel through to get from Yu-Shan to Creation. Unfortunately for the players, they're falling off as the dragon shakes himself awake, and start to look for something else they can feed on: the abundant Essence-users on the prison ship. Unfortunately for the beasties, that prison ship is full of the Exalted. Shredder of the Deep An evolution of the Singers of the Deep, the Shredders of the Deep are more versatile, though they lack their cousins' devastatingly mighty tails. Instead they have webbed and finned feet to accompany their arms. They've adapted to feast on Essence as well as emotions, and as such they have a small vampiric Essence pool. Shredders can still leap into the air and fly, and like their Singer brethren, they cannot remain in the air for long under normal circumstances. However, their possession of humanoid lower limbs leads them to prefer to board ships and attack in a dive-bombing blitzkrieg rather than dragging prey overboard, even though it would be more advantageous for them to do so. *'Motivation:' Feed *'Attributes:' Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2; Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 2. *'Virtues:' Compassion 1, Conviction 1, Temperance 1, Valor 2 (3 with song) *Backgrounds: *Supernatural Powers and Charms: **''Fearsome Song'': Shredders and Singers share this supernatural power, which drives fear into the hearts of all normal creatures who hear it. Players of characters who hear the howl must make a reflexive Willpower check every action as long as their character can hear the song. A successful roll indicates that the character resists the song's effects, while a failure applies a -2 internal penalty to all actions, and a botch causes the character to cower in fear until his player succeeds in a willpower check. Either fear effect is unnatural mental influence, which can be thrown off for one action at a cost of one temporary Willpower. Creatures which have been tainted by or born of the Wyld, however, including fellow Shredders and Singers, are immune to the ill effects of this power, and instead they gain two extra dice on any Join Battle roll, and their permanent Willpower and Valor ratings are temporarily increased by one so long as they hear it -- The song makes them strong and brave. These bonuses do not stack; multiple songs do not increase the bonus. **''Snapping Jaws'': As an innate power, the Shredder is entitled to a free attack with its jaws any time it manages to land a blow with both sets of talons, successfully grapples an enemy, or kills an enemy with any attack. This extra attack does not diminish the Shredder's defense, and is always made at its full dice pool, irregardless of any and all penalties. This trait allows the Shredder to gain a mote of Essence in battle from a kill. **''Vampiric Essence Pool'': A Shredder has an essence pool maximum of five dice, though they do not respire Essence normally in any environment, whether Wyld, Creation, Underworld, Malfeas, Yu-Shan, or stranger places. Rather, they gain essence by taking it from others. A Shredder normally hemorrhages Essence at a rate of one mote per scene (or one mote per day if it doesn't take part in a scene) unless it fed during that day, and gains one mote of Essence when it kills and feeds on a mortal. It only needs a single bite to gain the Essence it requires, though if left to its own devices with its kill it will usually feast. Those with Awakened Essence, however, are different. From them, it gains Essence any time it lands an attack with its jaws, sucking it out of them: specifically, it drains the target's Essence score in motes on each successful bite. **''Feeding Frenzy'': At the cost of one mote, the Shredder can leap at something up to its normal leaping distance and make two attacks with its talons and one snap with its jaws, at no action penalty whatsoever. If both talon attacks land, it is entitled to its additional free attack as per snapping jaws, resulting in a full attack pattern of two talon strikes and two jaw snaps. **''Blood Frenzy'': Having feasted on many mortals recently, a Shredder of the deep spontaneously mutates. At the cost of five motes of Essence, its body bulges, its green scales becoming black with blood pouring from between them. The beast grows stronger, faster and tougher, deadened to pain and much, much harder to kill. A Shredder in its Blood Frenzy form is significantly different enough to need its own statistical block for ease of reading (see below). The Blood Frenzy form lasts for a year and a day unless its time in Frenzy is extended by activating the power again. Few Shredders that achieve Blood Frenzy would have difficulty doing so; but if a Shredder's time in Fenzy expires, so does the Shredder. *'Join Battle: 4 (6 with song)' *'Attacks:' **Talons (Swipe): Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 5L, Defense +2, Rate 2 **Talons (Lethal Clinch): Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 5L, Defense -, Rate 1 **Jaw Snap: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 5L, Defense 0, Rate 1 *'Soak:' 3L/5B (Scaly skin, 2L/2B) *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: 6' / Willpower: 3 (4 with song) *'Essence: 2' *'Personal Essence:' 0/5 *'Other Notes:' Blood Frenzied Shredder of the Deep *'Motivation:' Feed! Feed, feast, consume! EAT! *'Attributes:' Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5; Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 4. *'Virtues:' Compassion 1, Conviction 1, Temperance 1, Valor 4 (5 with song) *Supernatural Powers: A Blood Frenzied Shredder has mostly the same supernatural powers as a normal Shredder, despite its talons having elongated and become enormous, lobster-like claws. However, instead of being entitled to a free jaw snap upon hitting with both claws, it's entitled to a free lethal clinch instead; upon successfully confirming its lethal clinch, it is then entitled to a free jaw snap. Very little will survive such an overwhelming and devastating assault. *'Join Battle: 12 (14 with song)' *'Attacks:' **Massive Claws (Scissor Snap): Speed 5, Accuracy 13, Damage 6L/2, Defense +3, Rate 2 **Massive Claws (Lethal Clinch): Speed 6, Accuracy 13, Damage 7L/4, Defense -, Rate 1 **Jaw Snap: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 5L, Defense 0, Rate 1 *'Soak:' 9L/9B (Deadened Scales 3L/3B) *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: 6 (8 vs. Ranged)' / Willpower: 3 (4 with song) *'Essence: 2' *'Personal Essence:' 0/5 *'Other Notes:' A Blood Frenzied Shredder is a terrifyingly effective close combatant. Its incredible and uncanny ability to leap out of the way of ranged attacks lets it sidestep arrows or single attacks with ease, and even a fully-automatic assault weapon will have a difficult time landing blows. Its extreme durability doesn't help its enemies, as the way it is deadened to pain and reinforced by blood grant it full Lethal soak from stamina. It does not suffer wound penalties. Essence Remora Descended from the humble remora, the Essence Remora has much the same behavior, but an unusual adaptation: an anglerfish-like lantern emerges from the middle of its sucker. Instead of drawing prey in, however, this allows the Essence Remora to draw itself to its prey like a tractor beam, closing and sucking on. Once attached, the Essence Remora lives a benign existence with its lantern pressed against the skin of its host, siphoning off the host's excess essence respiration (essence respired above and beyond its essence pools, which would normally be wasted.) The normal Essence Remora is not remarkable, but the result of one which has fed for a long time on a host which is massive, sea-dwelling and has vast stores of Essence is. Growing to huge sizes, up to as big as an orca whale, these massive Essence Remorae are still passive, unintelligent animals, but the natural habits so benign when they're small make them noteworthy now. They use the lighthouse-like beam of their lights to spotlight sources of their favorite food - Essence. Though their attractive force never improves, and fortunately they can't drag a ship through water or a man through the air, they can drag in motes of essence. For every action a character undertakes with the light of an Essence Remora Whale on him, he loses his permanent Essence score in motes of Essence, dragged to the Remora Whale's spotlight. This is a Shaping effect that negatively impacts a character's traits. =Luxor Hotel Enemies= Mortals The Muscle The Muscle consists of a handful of mortals brought in for the vault heist. These are all hardened criminals, they've done hard time in the past, and they're not going back again willingly; they will spend Willpower to resist influence to give themselves up. Statistically they're based off Regular Troops/Rebels, but with their focus switched to their firearms. *'Attributes:' Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3; Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2; Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 2. *'Virtues:' Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, Valor 3. *'Abilities:' Archery 3, Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 1, Dodge 3, Integrity 1, Linguistics 1, Larceny 3, Martial Arts 2, Medicine 1, Melee 2, Presence 1, Resistance 2, Socialize 1, Stealth 3, Thrown 3. *'Pertinent Intimacies:' Incarceration (Resolute refusal), money (covetous greed) *'Join Battle: 4' *'Attacks:' **Knuckle-Duster: **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 5, Damage 2B, Defense -, Rate 1 **Knife: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 4L, Defense 5, Rate 3 **Suppressed Glock 29 (10mm Auto): Speed 4, Accuracy 7, Damage 5L/2, Range 25, Rate 3, Magazine 10 **Suppressed H&K Mp5 (with stock): Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 6L, Range 200, Rate 3, Magazine 30 **Franchi SPAS-15 (with stock): Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 9L, Rate 3 (Semiauto), Magazine 6 *'Soak:' 0L/2B/0Ba (Unarmored) *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV:' 3 / Willpower: 6 *'Essence 1' Other Notes: These are hardened criminals who have done time and won't be easily taken alive. They're willing to take hostages, but won't actually execute them, preferring to use them as human shields. (Effectively forcing the hostage to take a Defend Other action every action.) They're here for money, but if surrounded would probably take an offer that entails getting to leave with their personal liberties unimpugned, after a demand to go to a country without an extradition treaty. They've got good gear courtesy of their bosses. The Techs The Techs consist of criminal safecrackers and computer hackers. While they may or may not have done time, they aren't as hardened as the Muscle, nor are they as adept at matters of violence. Ironically, this may actually make them more dangerous, not less. These are based off Green Troops/Common Outlaws, with their melee abilities swapped for Thrown. *'Attributes:' Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2; Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2; Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 3. *'Virtues:' Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 2, Valor 2. *'Abilities:' Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Dodge 2, Integrity 1, Larceny 3 (Pertinent Specialty +3,) Martial Arts 1, Resistance 1, Stealth 2, Socialize 1, Thrown 2. *'Pertinent Intimacies:' Money (Covetous Greed,) *'Join Battle: 4' *'Attacks:' **Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 3, Damage 2B, Defense 3, Rate 3 **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 3, Damage 2B, Defense -, Rate 1 **Suppressed Glock 29 (10mm Auto): Speed 4, Accuracy 5, Damage 5L/2, Range 25, Rate 3, Magazine 10 *'Soak:' 0L/1B/0Ba (Unarmored) *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV:' 2 / Willpower: 4 *'Essence 1' Other Notes: The hackers and safecrackers, these guys have been given suppressed pistols like their big daddies, the Muscle. They haven't been given anything heavier, of course. They're not as hardened, and more likely to panic in a firefight; this panic will result in them putting a gun to the head of a hostage. If a Tech gets a gun to a hostage's head and feels pressured - such as if someone takes the Aim action on him - then he rolls his attack dice. If he fails to garner even a single success, the gun goes off and he blows the hostage's head off by mistake. He will also be making the hostages act as a human shield, naturally. Terrestrial Exalted The antagonists are a group of Celestial Exalted, running two simultaneous heists. The vault heist is, in and of itself, a distraction, though if all goes to plan (and it should,) the group was planning to shoot the goons that Geno spent weeks grooming for the job and keep the money for themselves as well. The plan hinges around Lin Lei's creating a distraction by seducing the naive, vulnerable Goddess of the Luxor hotel, Cleopatra (Cleo or Pat, as she prefers to be called,) as doing so sets off the casino's machines; a few touches or quiver of pleasure set off one or two payouts. A full sexual orgasm in the embrace of an older, seductive woman, should set off all the machines, which will in turn set off a riot when the pit bosses try to close things down. The other three will take the opportunity to proceed to the hearthstone room to attune to the Luxor. They hope to be able to use magic to make metaphysical ownership translate (somehow) into physical ownership; and, of course, to get the hearthstone. Geno from Chicago, AKA the Typewriter Geno (From Chicago, AKA The Typewriter,) came from an apparently respectable, middle-class Chicago family, and was studying to become a doctor, but like many middle-class families, his fell on hard times, and like many Italians who fell on hard times, Geno wound up doing some shady business for the mob; first as a medic they could use who wouldn't ask questions (or answer them!,) and later as a bag-man. One day, while cleaning out his mother's attic (because even gangsters have families, and family business that needs to be done, and not all family business is Family Business,) he found a trunk belonging to his great-grandfather. The trunk was full primarily of memories and knick-knacks from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, but it also contained some photographs of his great-grandfather as a young man. One of those pictures included a picture of his great-grandfather at a soup kitchen, standing on-guard near a very infamous man; Alfonse Capone. In the bottom of the trunk was a guitar case, but inside was not a guitar but a Thompson Submachinegun. He understood, then, in a sort of dark epiphany, that his fate was to follow in his great-grandfather's footsteps, and build a criminal empire that would make even the G-Men fear the name of one gangster again. That hasn't worked out so far for him. Despite the epiphany that came complete with a magical ascendance, twisting and gnarling all the wood in his mother's house, the Feds don't quite fear him. His unsubtle nature and his penchant for using the antique weapon (which he lavishes attention on and has had many a gunsmith improve,) caused him to be run out of Chicago by the Family before the FBI could track him down, magic or no. He didn't have the support among the men to murder the leadership and take over, and rather than destroy the organization he hoped to take over, he fled to find new support and grow in power. He's a fearsome lone combatant, but as a leader of men he's not amazing. Good by mortal standards, but it's a field of endeavor he has always needed to work on. Fortunately for him, he fell into the company of a gang of international Dragon-Blooded criminals who go anywhere and do what they feel like. In this group, he makes a perfect Enforcer, and they've made a pact to take over the criminal organizations of their homelands and together rule the criminal world. *'Motivation:' To unite the Italian Mafia in the United States into such a criminal empire that the federal government dare not take action against them. *'Aspect:' Heart. I mean Wood. *'Anima Banner:' Environment-appropriate foliage begins to grow rapidly around him, not interfering with him but damaging others. It becomes ash when he moves away. *'Attributes:' Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3; Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2; Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 4. *'Virtues:' Compassion 2, Conviction 4 (Primary,), Temperance 2, Valor 3 *Backgrounds: Contacts 3, Resources 3, Breeding 1 *Charms: The Chicago Typewriter is a dangerous combatant because of his defensive focus; mortals would find him to be essentially invulnerable to anything short of an overwhelming, sustained attack by military explosives. **Dodge: ***Theshold Warding Stance: 2m, allows dodging when dodging would be otherwise impossible. ***Hopping Firecracker Evasion: 3m, lets him hop a Dash Action away from his enemies when he evades an attack with his Dodge DV. ***Safety Among Enemies: 4m, 1wp; If his Dodge DV is equal to half or better of an incoming attack's dice pool, he can automatically redirect the attack to anyone within three yards other than the attacker. ***Elemental Defense Technique: 6m, scene-long; Archery attacks are negated entirely. Anyone trying to make an unarmed attack against him suffers four levels of bashing damage, soaked normally. +2 Lethal and Bashing soak against weapons not made of any Magical Material. Earth: Surrounds him with a cloud of dust that only hinders ranged attacks at him, granting him a +2 on Dodge DV against ranged attacks which this Charm fails to destroy entirely. Wood: Surrounds him with a cloud of pollen and irritants that cause any would-be hand-to-hand attackers to need to make a Sta + Resistance roll or suffer a -1 internal penalty for the rest of the scene. (Simple) ****The Typewriter knows this Charm twice, having learned both the Wood version and the Earth version. He uses the Earth version in combat, because the Wood version is essentially useless, being only effective against people who try to get close to him, and negated entirely by the simple precaution of wearing a gas mask. **Thrown: ***Whirlwind Shield Form: 4m +1 mote per ally protected, Scene-length. Subtracts his Essence from any Ranged attack made on him. (Simple, Combo-OK) **Larceny: ***Observer Awareness Method, 2m: Perception + Larceny, one success means the DB knows if he is being watched, and two or more pinpoints the specific location of observers. ***Trackless Walk Style: 3m. The Dragon-Blood leaves no evidence of his identity at the scene of any scene in which he activates this Charm. ***Ears of the Snowy Owl: 2m; Physical obstructions do not exist as far as the DB is concerned when listening, for one minute after activating this Charm. ***Naked Thief Style: 3m, 1WP per task: This Charm gives the Typewriter effectively any tools he would need to complete any Larcenous task, even if he does not have them on his person. He simply draws them out of Essence. ***Window-in-the-Door Technique: 3m (Simple,). This Charm makes a one-foot section of solid wall or other material transparent, as far as the Typewriter is concerned, for three ticks, during which time he may observe through the opening he has created. *'Join Battle:' 6 *'Attacks:' **Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 3B, Defense 3, Rate 3 **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 3B, Defense -, Rate 1 **The Chicago Typewriter: Speed 5, Accuracy 15, Damage 7L (10L with frangible rounds), Range 100, Rate 4, Magazine: 100 round drum ***Double the target's Ballistic soak against the Dum-Dum rounds. *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: 7' / Willpower: 6 *'Essence: 3' *'Personal Essence:' 10 / Peripheral Essence: 22 (25) *'Committed Essence:' 3 **The Typewriter begins the scene with Trackless Walk Style activated. *'Intimacies:' The Family (Reverence to the ideal,) The Chicago Typewriter (Beloved possession,) The Green Dragon (Crude Desire.) *'Other Notes:' Geno is an exceptionally deadly combatant for a Dragon-Blood when wielding his chosen weapon, as he is effectively at the pinnacle of human capability. This he relies on, because he lacks offensive magic; his strategy is to 'turtle up' behind his scene-long defensive Charms and gun down everything in sight. If he gets his Earth-flavored Elemental Defense Technique up and running, his Dodge DV increases by a further +2 against those ranged attacks which are not simply automatically defeated, and if he layers Whirlwind Shield Form on top of that, he subtracts his Essence from the dice pool of those attacking him. Needless to say, when the Typewriter is fully-buffed, he is essentially invulnerable as far as mortals are concerned, but his hand-to-hand defense remains somewhat lacking. He relies on Hopping Firecracker Evasion and Safety Among Enemies, but he doesn't know how to properly fight the Exalted, and his habit of spraying rounds everywhere will suppresses his DDV to the point where he should be reasonably vulnerable. **The Chicago Typewriter: A legacy inherited from his hitman great-grandfather, this weapon was in a poor state when Geno first found it, having survived nearly a century of neglect in a guitar case in his family's home. Since then, however, Geno has invested considerable time and money in this weapon, taking it to master gunsmiths the world over. The weapon is truly a case of "grandfather's ax," as almost nothing remains on the weapon that Geno inherited from his great-grandfather that was actually used by his great-grandfather, but he still thinks of it as his great-grandfather's gun. Most of the firing mechanism and the barrel have been replaced, either from cherry-picked parts or custom-machined pieces. The original foregrip had been replaced at some time in the past with a solid rifle-style foregrip off a Thompson issued to an American G.I.; it and the stock were replaced with black walnut in the original pattern. The barrel and firing mechanism were replaced with custom pieces, nickle-plated so as to be impervious enough against rust to be suitable for maritime use and with the name "Typewriter" etched into the barrel in art-deco lettering, and so forth and so on. Essentially only the trigger remains original, and the weapon has been effectively re-machined into a Perfect device. As such, it has the following statistics: The gun is using a massive 100-round drum magazine filled to the brim with 'exploding' .45 ACP rounds, also known as 'Dum Dum' rounds. They add a massive +3 damage value, but double the target's Ballistic soak. He also has a backup drum of 50 rounds, regular .45 ACP. Kenji, the Red Dragon As his name might tip one off, Kenji hails from Japan. A beefstick of a man by most standards, he was a towering enforcer for the Yakuza in his homeland, and few dared to cross him. Surprisingly honorable for a killer, he follows a code of his own which is part-Bushido, part-Chivalry, and part-just-made-up-on-the-spot-when-something-strikes-him-as-important-to-honor. When a member of the Yakuza gang he belonged to forced himself on the oyabun's daughter, Kenji was ordered to kill the man, and Kenji promptly beheaded him. When a member forced himself on a girl on the street, Kenji likewise beheaded him, reasoning that rape was a grave sin of dishonor, which stained everyone and could not be tolerated. The oyabun did not agree. The oyabun ordered Kenji to cut off the tip of his finger. Kenji refused, passionately arguing that the honor of the organization did not bend depending on whether the girl being raped was family or stranger. Annoyed, the oyabun ordered his other enforcers to cut off Kenji's hand if Kenji did not promptly cut off the tip of his finger. Instead, Kenji cut off the oyabun's head, and that of all the other enforcers in the room; Kenji had taken his second breath as one of the Fire Dragons. Kenji looted the gang's vaults, and rather than continue to kill men he respected and felt to be honorable, removed himself to China, where he met the very-well-connected Green Dragon. Thereafter, he was soon enmeshed in a group of Terrestrials, Kenji's goal with them to amass power and wealth sufficient to return to Japan and raise his own organization that would grow and purge the dishonor (and dishonorable) from all the yakuza gangs of his homeland, with one oyabun above them all; him. *'Motivation:' To become the oyabun of all Yakuza, everywhere. *'Aspect:' Fire *'Anima Banner:' A swirling red Asian dragon which orbits him and mauls those nearby with ferocity. *'Attributes:' Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3; Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2; Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 5. *'Virtues:' Compassion 3, Conviction 3, Temperance 4, Valor 4 (Primary) *Backgrounds: Resources 4, Breeding 3 *Charms: **Athletics: ***Effortlessly Rising Flame, 1m; Instantly rise from prone, or add two dots to Athletics to determine jumping distance. ***Falling Star Maneuver, 1m/2 dice (max Essence);add two dice of damage per mote spent, before soak, only if target has no cover and is open to flanking. ***Bellows-pumping Stride, 1m, (Scene-length); Doubles Move and Dash actions.. **Awareness: ***First Awareness Excellency: 1m/two dice (max Ability + Specialty.) Kenji uses this to spend four motes and add eight dice to his Wits + Awareness roll for Join Battle. Kenji likes to go first, and second, in a fight. **Integrity: ***Oath of the Ten-Thousand Dragons: (Permanent.) Kenji has vowed supernatural loyalty to his Circle; The Green Dragon, the Bear, the Bird, and the Typewriter, as a whole. He adds his Integrity to his Dodge MDV and Parry MDV against all social attempts to make him betray the circle. ***Unsleeping Earth Meditation: 2m/day. Kenji suffers no penalties for fatigue or lack of sleep for an entire day, and is fully alert at all times. He can use this a maximum of his Integrity + Essence days before he needs to rest. **Melee: ***Dragon-Graced Weapon: 1m (Instant); Sets the target on fire, adding +4L to the damage pool. ***Blinding Spark Distraction: 2m (Reflexive); On a successful parry of metal weapon (Bullets are metal!,) target loses two successes from her next attack for being blinded. A successful (Wits + Dodge) roll mitigates it to a two-die internal penalty instead of two-successes external penalty. ***Portentous Comet-Deflecting Mode: 3m, 1wp (Reflexive step 5.) Roll Dex + Melee against an incoming close combat attack. If even one Success is generated, automatically block the attack, as long as it was not Sorcerous or enhanced by a Charm. **'Combos:' ***Dragon Dives from Heaven: This Combo contains Falling Star Maneuver and Dragon-Graced Weapon. Kenji pays a willpower to activate this Combo and sears through the air, unsheathing his sword and slashing it through his target in an instant, adding six dice to his damage pool with three motes of Essence via Falling Star Maneuver, and four more for one mote with Dragon-Graced Weapon. *'Join Battle:' 13 (21 with four motes of the First Awareness Excellency.) *'Attacks:' **Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 6, Damage 4B, Defense 3, Rate 3 **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 4B, Defense -, Rate 1 *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: 6' / Willpower: 8 / Parry DV: 7 *'Essence: 3' *'Personal Essence:' 13 / Peripheral Essence: 31 *'Committed Essence:' 0 *'Intimacies:' His Circle (Oath of the Ten-Thousand Dragons,) The Green Dragon (Romantic Desire,) Honor (Personal Code,) the Yakuza (Power-Thirst) *'Other Notes:' Kenji is, without a doubt, one of the best swordsmen alive today. He relishes the opportunity to engage in a sword-duel, no matter how strange or lopsided (such as his katana and wakizashi versus a rapier, or what-have-you.) He sees himself as a modern-day Miyamoto Musashi, and will admit to no superior, alive or historical, except Musashi. He might have won that fight, but there's no way to know, and Kenji is not one to boast about being a better swordsman than the best swordsman. He follows an honor code of his own; partly Bushido, partly Chivalry, and partly made-up based on whatever strikes him as honorable or dishonorable. For instance, while he has no qualms about killing men, he will only raise his sword to a woman if she raised a weapon to him first, and he will never, ever, raise his sword to a child. He acknowledges no loyalty to any lord or superior; in the circle, they are five equals, as it should be. He knows that he is Ronin, a man without master, who does as he pleases. This is fine by him; he is not concerned by what others think of his honorable status, as long as he knows that he is an honorable man. In combat, Kenji prefers to go first, and if lucky, second. He pumps the First Awareness Excellency to raise his Join Battle pool to a dizzying 21 dice, virtually guaranteeing that in any battle he joins, he will be able to strike twice before anyone, friend or foe, can act. When he duels, the duel is almost always over in a moment, with the other person dead, and Kenji calmly returning his sword to its scabbard. In a large fight, his circle find the speed with which he reacts and moves to be essentially terrifying, and they are very, very glad that he is on their side. To date, no-one against whom he has joined battle has lived to give their opinion on his reaction time. That said, Kenji is a one-trick pony. His offensive power is great, and his parrying is likewise great, but he has never done battle with a Celestial Exalt, and does not know about their Perfect Defenses. He will quickly exhaust himself attempting to move the immovable object. **Twin Swords: Kenji wears two swords, in keeping with his view of himself as a modern-day Ronin. Priceless antiquities owned by the oyabun he killed, no-one but a madman, or a supremely confident man such as Kenji, would actually bear them in battle. Reinforced by his connection to them, however, Kenji uses these weapons without fear of damaging them. Kenji uses his Katana for attack, and reserves his off-hand Wakizashi for defense. This lets him avoid off-hand penalties on his attacks, and gives him the best odds at parrying, which is capable of even cutting bullets out of the air without harming the sword. Lin Lei, the Green Dragon Born in Hong Kong, Lin Lei worked for the Blossom Mountain Triad from an early age to support her family. Originally the work she got was kid stuff - picking tourist's pockets, convincing people to shop at Triad-owned fronts, delivering messages. When she blossomed into a beautiful young teenager, they wanted her to work as a whore. Lin Lei objected to this. She was smart and cunning, skillful. Making her work as a whore was a waste of her talents - she had other, better ways to offer her services to the Blossom Mountain Triad. The male-dominated structure of the Triad did not see it that way, and she was beaten and taken to a whorehouse. Lin Lei was furious, understandably, but being a young girl could do little to change her fate but spread her legs when ordered to, bide her time, and hoard what little power she could. It paid off years down the road. She had blackmail material on a lot of the Triad's members, had money squirreled away that nobody knew about, had her minders and key figures wrapped around her finger. She unleashed all of this at once, ordering those she was blackmailing to murder key figures of the Triad leadership for their slights against her. She did not tell them that this was all to happen at the same time, of course; when four men were found dead at the same leadership meeting, it looked very much like a rebellion from the lower ranks was occurring, and the Triad wound up destroying itself as men were murdered in the attempts to extract information that didn't exist from them. No-one would believe the killings were orchestrated by 'some whore,' it was believed the conspiracy ran deep and was very loyal to itself, and had named the whore as a fall-girl. During all of this, Lin Lei had been a very, very busy girl. So busy, in fact, as she had Exalted as one of the Fire Dragons, and her plans were in over-drive, draining the Triad's accounts and raiding its stashes and safehouses. When the purges she had instigated were over, the Blossom Mountain Triad was essentially no more, with only a handful of its senior membership alive. She gave up their locations to the rival Black River Triad for an additional sum of money, and vanished into the night, looking to make the acquaintance of those who could see her value. She met a heavily-tattooed giant of a man named Kenji, and was smitten by him - partially the man, but mainly his plans, and she made her own vow to do the same as he would. She had her body tattooed in much the same fashion as his was, only with Chinese imagery rather than Japanese, and a green dragon instead of red, and thus they became The Two Dragons. Soon they would be joined when they made the acquaintance of an international smuggler from Rio de Janeiro, on the run from South American cartels he had cheated out of drugs and a plane, giving them international mobility. A Muscovite former-policeman on the run from both the authorities and the Bratva filled out their ranks quite nicely, and they decided to seek their criminal fortune in America before they came back to their homelands to enforce order. In California, they made the acquaintance of an exiled member of the Chicago Mob who had been run out by his Family because he was bringing too much heat onto the group. They traveled the States and the World together, their combined talents easily letting them smash through mortal security and background checks. *'Motivation:' To manipulate her way into control of all of the world's Triads and Tongs. *'Aspect/Caste:' Fire *'Anima Banner:' A Green Asian Dragon orbits around her, trailing hot flames from its mouth and claws. *'Attributes:' Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4; Charisma 4, Manipulation 5, Appearance 4; Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 4. *'Virtues:' Compassion 3, Conviction 4 (Primary), Temperance 3, Valor 1 *Backgrounds: Breeding 3, Resources 3, Connections 3 *Charms: **Athletics: ***Effortlessly Rising Flame (1m; Reflexive, Instant) Lin Lei can rise immediately from a prone position, or add two dots to her Athletics rating for calculating jumping distance. **Presence: ***Glowing Coal Radiance (2m; Simple, One-Action, Obvious Compulsion) Surrounds her with a red nimbus haze. All physical and social attacks aimed at her by anyone in range with a Dodge MDV less than her (App + Presence + Breeding) suffer an internal penalty of her Presence. 2wp negates. ***Unbearable Taunt Technique (2m; Simple, Compulsion, (Essence) actions duration.) Gaining the target's attention and insulting or embarrassing him causes the target to irrationally fixate on her. Lin rolls (Manipulation + Presence) and adds her Essence in automatic successes. The results are compared to the target's PMDV (in physical combat, DMDV applies instead.) In social combat, the victim takes a -2 internal penalty to all social actions. ***Auspicious First Meeting Attitude (2m; Scene-Length) When Lin Lei uses this Charm (new motes must be spent for new characters,) she gains an effective +3 specialty to all social interactions with that target. This does not count as dice granted from Charms, but as a natural Specialty, subject to the normal limitation on Specialties. This bonus drops by -1 for each additional scene in which she and the target both participate, but thanks to her second purchase, having consensual sex with her target resets the counter and renews the +3 specialty for subsequent encounters. ****Repurchased: Consensual sex reset. ***Passion Transmuting Nuance (3m; scene-length, Simple) This social attack cannot be the first social action Lin Lei takes in a scene. It constitutes an unnatural social attack with a dice pool of (Manipulation + Presence + Essence); if the target's chosen MDV is beaten, the desired emotion burns in her heart for a scene, reducing her Temperance score to 1 for the duration unless Temperance is her primary Virtue. The feelings conferred by this Charm act like a dominant Virtue, imposing a -2 MDV penalty against social attacks to make her act in accordance with her new emotion, and impose a +2 MDV bonus against social attacks to make her act against it. One WP paid at any point negates. **Socialize ***Sweeten-the-Tap Method (2m, Simple, Scene-Length): Enhances a social event attended by no more individuals than Lin Lei's Socialize rating in Magnitude. (She could affect a Magnitude 5 gathering; quite a lot of people.) Anyone at the party who consumes alcohol or any other recreational intoxicants finds the experience to be extremely pleasurable, and suffers a penalty of -1 to their MDV for the scene from lowered inhibitions. If any social attack against an intoxicated individual botches, however, they are deeply offended and must pay 1wp to resist an unnatural compulsion to Join Battle against the person who offended them. Lin Lei purchased this Charm twice, so that those who consume intoxicants or whom have sex (not even necessarily with her,) at the function are at a cumulative -1 penalty to their MDVs. ****Repurchased: Sex, Intoxicants ( ***Jade Defense (5m; Scene-Length, Simple) Lin Lei is a master manipulator, and has had more sex at the young age of 24 than most people will have in their lives. She is very jaded, and does not fall easily into her own traps; her Mental DVs improve by half her applicable Socialize rating, rounded up, while this Charm is in effect, against natural or unnatural influence. Her Essence is also considered to be one higher than it actually is for the purposes of defending against Charms which do not affect those with a higher Essence rating than the user. ***Warm-Faced Seduction Style (1m, Supplemental, Instant) Adds bonus dice (as granted by Charms) to any seduction attempt made with any ability. The attempt to seduce is considered unnatural mental influence, and costs 1wp to resist. ***Brother-Against-Brother Insinuation (4m, 1wp; Simple, Scene-Length): This Charm generates a (Manipulation+Socialize) social attack against someone, adding Lin Lei's Essence in automatic successes. This unblockable social attack takes the form of a most cutting, snide remark, or some other simple comment, instantly generates a strong negative intimacy towards the person she names as the target, or converts an already-existing negative intimacy into a negative one. Resisting this new Intimacy costs 2wp. One bonus success is usually enough to stir bad feelings, while three or more is usually enough to result in violence. Either way, this effect lasts for only one scene, after which cooler heads prevail, assuming nothing has happened in the mean-time to make the animosity genuine (or render the point moot, if the Charm results in death.) The target character may, with a successful Intelligence + Socialize roll (difficulty of Lin Lei's Manipulation score,) or the payment of three willpower, remembers the role Lin Lei had in causing the animosity. **Larceny: ***Observer Awareness Method (2m) Lin Lei makes a Perception + Larceny check. One success reveals if she is being observed; additional successes will pinpoint the specific location of observers. The pinpointing radius is equal to the number of successes in yards times ten. Supernaturally concealed observers can't be pinpointed, it is simply made known that she is being observed. ***Trackless Walk Style (3m; scene-length.) Lin Lei leaves no evidence whatsoever of her passing or presence in an area, defying tracking attempts or forensic analysis. This Charm cannot compete with Celestial-level attempts to track her and does not affect the resolution of such Charms, but Investigation rolls made to locate evidence of her passing at a crime scene are at an external penalty equal to her Essence, if they are even made valid at all by magic. ***Ears of the Snowy Owl (2m; Simple, One-Minute) Lin Lei can hear conversations going on as if there were no obstacles between her and them. Wards against scrying do block this Charm. ***Precise Ink Technique ( ***Waters of Honesty Method ( ***Perfect Gambling Prana ( ***Flood of Victory Prana ( **Performance: ***Hidden Petal Aria Method ( ***Soul-Stirring performance Method ( **Thaumaturgy: ***Alchemy: Master. Lin Lei's grandmother owned a shop selling traditional Chinese remedies and such, and devoutly believed in the magical potency of the things she could make. As a child, Lin Lei herself believed her grandmother's tales and dutifully learned all her grandmother could teach her, until one fateful day at the age of ten, when her best friend was stabbed by an adult man who was angry she had spurned his advance. Without money to pay the doctors, she dragged her friend to her grandmother, who attempted to heal her, but failed. Lin Lei grew bitter, and forsook the old ways. As an adult woman, she'd no use for such things, except as more ways to manipulate idiots and separate them from their money by selling them (what she said was) rhinoceros horn powder or something. After she Exalted, however, she realized that her grandmother's ways were workable, but the magic simply had not been present at the time. She went back to her grandmother, and paid for her grandmother to create one of the rarest things she had ever heard of, and had made only once before in her life; Seven-Bounties Paste, said to be efficacious in destroying any disease save leprosy. She took it herself and after a week, paid for a blood test; all the diseases that her already-strong constitution had beaten into remission had been gone entirely. Then she tested it on an otherwise extremely healthy AIDS patient, and after a week, the patient was cured. She used social magic to convince the doctors they must have simply mixed up the test results, swore the man she had cured to secrecy, and paid off all her grandmother's debts. Her grandmother, grateful for her granddaughter's sudden and renewed interest in the arts, gratefully gifted the girl with copies of all the old books and scrolls she owned. *'Join Battle:' 8 *'Attacks:' None. Lin Lei will not engage in battle and will flee if it erupts. *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: ' 5 / Willpower: 10 *'Dodge MDV:' 11 / Parry MDV: 5 (6 versus seduction attempts) *'Essence: ' 4 *'Personal Essence:' 17 / Peripheral Essence: 38 *'Committed Essence:' *'Intimacies:' Her Grandmother (Protective filial love,) Triads (Bitter anger,) Triads (Covetous powerthirst,) her Circle (friendship and loyalty,) men (desire to control) *'Other Notes:' Years of being physically vulnerable have inoculated Lin Lei with a physical cowardice. If attacked, she would flee, surrender, bed and plead, anything but actually fight back, despite the magic at her command, which is considerable. She is probably the highest-breeding Dragon-Blooded Exalt on Earth. Her focus is on manipulation and seduction; she could give Mata Hari lessons. Manipulation was the only weapon available to her when the men of the triads forced her to prostitute herself for nearly nothing, and Lin Lei wielded that weapon with surgical precision. Remarkably she isn't any sort of sociopath, and is even a reasonably compassionate woman, but she relishes in manipulating others to do her bidding. Sex is both a toy and a weapon for Lin Lei, and often the first one she will pull from her arsenal. After all, it costs her nothing but some time and practiced physical exertion, but most men (and many women) would pay dearly, or do highly inadvisable things, for the chance to lay their hands on her. Her life as an unwilling prostitute left her mostly jaded to the advances of men; she will lay with them or court them as they desire to get her way, but she doesn't really care one way or another about sexually or emotionally pursuing men. Women are another story, and she finds her own lusts and emotional desires pulled towards women and girls; something which puts her in an awkward position as regards the fellow members of her circle, all of whom have some kind of design on her. If she thought she could do it without causing a war between those she genuinely considers her friends, she would give herself to all of them, the way they wished, just to make them happy, but having intentionally caused jealous violence in just that way knows that she must approach the situation cautiously, so she affects aloofness. She wants to control men, in all things; her Circle are the odd exception, as she views them as friends and equals. When it comes to the triads, she wants to cause the throats of the old men with money and power to be slit, so that the young women (especially herself,) with money and power can displace them. Josef the Bear Josef was a strange and unusual thing in the Moscow Militia; an honest cop. He took no bribes (and arrested those who offered them,) he did his job loyally, courageously, and honestly. When he saw wrongdoing, even by other members of those charged with policing crime, he reported it. Needless to say, he was one of the least popular Muscovite militiamen. Men like him tended to die quickly, but Josef's father had once been a KGB agent, and had instilled in his boy the proper way of evaluating situations to see how they could turn against you. He lived in and out of hotels under a number of false names, kept no discernible routine, and seemed to be hell-bent on scrubbing the entire militia clean, from the ground up. All of that changed one day. The Bratva found him, because he was sold out by one of the few men he trusted. Josef was brutally attacked by five men. Like an immovable object, he weathered their assault without apparent injury, and killed them with his nightstick. He had taken his Second Breath as one of the Earth Dragons. But, it had not gone unnoticed. The FSB was looking to capture and examine all of these strange entities, and soon they came for him. The irony of the situation is who helped him evade almost-certain dissection; the Bratva had need of men 'such as he,' and despite (or perhaps because of) his killing of five of their best mortal enforcers, sheltered him from the FSB. He was now a criminal through-and-through, and had become thoroughly convinced that the rulers of Russian society had and always had been criminals, and those who overthrew them were merely a lesser breed of criminal which worked its way up and painted itself with a thin veneer of legitimacy. He did the Bratva's dirty work for a time, but his notions about what to do were making the older members uncomfortable. He was suggesting that the Brotherhoods should not be content merely to amass wealth in the shadows, but to move up, seize control of the Motherland from those who had it now. Once again, the Bratva tried to have him killed, but the Bear was ready. He killed his would-be executioners, then went after the men who had ordered his death. Once they were killed, he took sums of their cash and resources, fleeing, using his knowledge of the systems of both the underworld and the corrupt militia to flee to Hong Kong, where he met a South American man who could transport anything anywhere. Josef wound up in their company, making plans. They would amass money, power, favors, resources, and return to their homes to conquer the organizations which had done them wrong. Josef's plans go farther than merely ruling a criminal underworld; he intends to unite the brotherhood, and then surge forward into control of Russia, either through outright revolution, or through being elected. *'Motivation:' Become the next Iron Man of Russia and return Russia to World Superpower status. *'Aspect/Caste:' Earth *'Anima Banner:' Tiny tremors shake and rattle the area around him. When his flux reaches damaging levels, an enormous, phantasmal bear appears next to him, savagely mauling those near him with paws and jaws that materialize as clods of earth with jagged claws or teeth of stone. *'Attributes:' Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4; Charisma 4, Manipulation 1, Appearance 2; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3. *'Virtues:' Compassion 2, Conviction 4 (Primary), Temperance 2, Valor 3 *Backgrounds: Breeding 2, Contacts 2, Resources 3, *Charms: **Awareness: ***Sense-Riding Technique (5m; Simple) Rides the senses of someone within (Essence) miles, whilst concentrating intently. Opposed (Awareness + Essence) roll. ***Sense-Destroying Method (4m, 1wp; Simple, Crippling) (Awareness + Essence) roll, difficulty of target's Perception. Net successes reduce the target's effective Perception, and if he gets more successes than the target has Perception, that sense shuts down completely for his Essence in ticks. **Resistance: ***Ox-Body Technique x3: Josef has an additional 3 -1 health levels and 6 -2 health levels. ***Strength of Stone Technique (2m/person; Simple): Josef can add one to his Strength and Stamina for a scene. ***Impervious Skin of Stone Meditation (1m/2 soak up to Essence soak; Simple): Josef can spend up to 2 motes to add 3 to his Bashing, Lethal and Ballistic soak for the duration of a scene. This soak stacks with armor, but does not apply to attacks enhanced with Essence. **Martial Arts: ***Blade-Deflecting Palm (2m; Reflexive): Can freely Parry Lethal Damage with Martial Arts without a stunt. ***Become the Hammer (2m/strike, Supplemental): Punching or Kicking delivers Lethal damage instead of bashing. ***Disarming Strike Prana (4m, 1wp; Simple): Negates the -2 penalty for disarming an opponent and throws their weapon (5 +1/additional success) yards away from its wielder. *'Join Battle:' 8 *'Attacks:' **Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 4B, Defense 5, Rate 3 **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 4B, Defense -, Rate 1 **Nightstick: Speed 5, Accuracy 11, Damage 8L, Defense 7 *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: 4 ' / Willpower: 7 *'Essence: ' 3 *'Personal Essence:' 12 / Peripheral Essence: 27 *'Committed Essence:' 0 *'Intimacies:' Russia (Fondness), The Green Dragon (Smouldering desire,) The Circle (Loyalty) *'Other Notes:' Josef tried to be an honest policeman, but he saw what that got him. When the authorities came after him after his Exaltation, he realized that they were no better than the Bratva, simply thugs with power and uniforms. He realized that for all the lofty talk of politicians since the fall of the USSR, they were simply the words of the same men who had held power, in an unbroken line stretching back to the toppling of the Czars; and before then, it was a different unbroken line of men (and occasionally women) with power. Josef internalized that lesson; legitimacy and authority flow naturally from having the most power. He now sees himself as the next Iron Man of Russia, with a mandate to seize control of his homeland and restore it to the height of its glory, with world superpower status. The exact how this is done matter less to him; he toys with the idea of resurrecting communism, or simply usurping the Federation as it exists, or coming up with another plan down the road. All that matters to him is that Russia regains the power it once had, with his hand on the reins of power. **Nightstick: Josef carries a policeman's nightstick with him at all times, and prefers to use it over guns or his fists. He's owned it since his time in the Moscow Militia, and it has always served him well. This particular example is made out of strong steel and finished in a matte black substance that offers supreme grip, with an elongated rear section. Josef is very, very good with this weapon, and capable of wielding it in ways that most could not; his favorite trick is to reverse his grip, grabbing it by the end most would strike with, and using the side handle to disarm an enemy. Fernando the Bird The man they call the Bird was born a poor boy in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, son of a prostitute and most likely sired by some Caucasian tourist. To say he was unwanted would be to put it mildly, and he ran away sometime near the age of ten (he's not exactly sure how old he is,) because he reasoned that anything would be better than living with his alcoholic, abusive whore of a mother. He fell in with a gang of smugglers as an errand boy, growing up around them, with them. At first they used him as an errand boy, but his smarts, silver tongue and resourcefulness seemed to know no bounds, and he became a courier. By the age of fourteen, he was flying with them; by seventeen, he could fly the plane. The gang's boss met an unfortunate accident when Fernando was twenty-one, having been drinking heavily and taken a fall from a balcony onto his head, four stories below. Some of his fellows suspected him, but there were witnesses that Fernando had tried to catch him. With the gang lacking a leader, it mostly dissolved; only Fernando and two others were left, but they retained the most important asset; the plane. Under his leadership, the group focused primarily on high-reward, low-risk operations, smuggling rare and exotic wildlife, nearly-exclusively birds. Fernando made connections, contacts, upgraded to a larger plane and put himself through formal flight school with the proceeds of his operation. By the time he was thirty-one, he was by most measures a wealthy, well-connected man. Disaster struck one morning, as they were lifting off for a delivery; their plane sucked a bird into the propeller, sending it down. His henchmen, panicking, had taken all three of the parachutes for themselves and jumped, leaving Fernando to choose between the unenviable options of piloting the plane to its almost-certain demise or take leap to his essentially-certain death. Making his peace, Fernando decided to make it quicker rather than slower, and leaped from the plane. However, the miraculous happened; he descended slowly, as one at peace with the air, floating gently downwards amidst swirling vortexes of wind and feathers of exotic birds. Fernando had taken his Second Breath as one of the Air Dragons, and he landed in the jungle. He tracked down the two henchman who had abandoned him and smacked them for being idiots, then hustled them back towards the city to regroup. But now, his supercharged ambition knew no bounds; he made up his money lost in the crash and then some by making a high-risk, ultra-high-reward flight in someone else's plane full of heroin, evading law enforcement, and betraying the drug smugglers, keeping their money and their plane. He knew they would come looking for him, so he decided to remove himself completely from their sphere of influence for a long while, while he planned his next move, and flew to Europe. If it needed to be moved and it wasn't legal, Fernando the Bird could get it moved, whether it was a shipment of cocaine, stolen high-end auto parts, wanted people; whatever. The only line he wouldn't cross was into the human trafficking trade, which he (being Catholic, of course,) viewed as nothing short of outright demonic. Pan-Eurasia was his playground, letting him move anywhere; from northern Scotland to the Solomon Islands, from Russia to Rome, from Spain to Australia, there was no-where he couldn't fly, with you and/or your goods. When he met the Two Dragons in Hong Kong, he knew he was on to something, especially with his new friend Josef. With enforcers of his own, wielding the same divine gifts he himself wielded, he had no need to be afraid. No-one could touch them, and they flew to California to make their fate. Fernando, always a man with an eye for what is rare and valuable, realized the nature of Hearthstones and Manses, and came up with the idea that the group should start to hoard these rare gems. Their scheme at the Luxor Hotel was his concept, and he is the one who intends to seize the Hearthstone from the luxury casino-hotel, then cycling through the things with his companions. *'Motivation:' To control the flow of the world's goods. *'Aspect/Caste:' Air *'Anima Banner:' A hot, humid cyclone forms around him, with sharp feathers of exotic birds caught in the vortex; the more Flux, the more feathers. *'Attributes:' Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2; Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3; Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 4. *'Virtues:' Compassion 3, Conviction 3 (Primary), Temperance 2, Valor 2 *Backgrounds: Breeding 1, Backing 2 (Smuggling Operation,) Followers 1 (Those Two Guys,) Resources 4, Contacts 4 *Charms: **Linguistics: ***Language-Learning Ritual (5m, 1wp; one week, Simple) Spends an hour listening to a foreign language being spoken, then gains complete fluency and literacy for one week. ***Cipher Missive (3m; instant, Simple) Creates a document of up to (Essence) pages in length. Roll (Intelligence + Linguistics), successes add to a base of character's Essence to determine the difficulty of an (Intelligence + Linguistics) roll to read the document. Each roll to do so requires (Essence) in days. Fernando can name a number of individuals up to twice his Essence who can read the document freely, or he can specify a class of individuals. ('His Circle' is the most frequently chosen class.) **Lore: ***Elemental Concentration Trance (5m, 1wp; Simple, one day.) Can do a full week's worth of research in a single day. If used more days in a row than his Lore rating, suffers a level of unsoakable Lethal damage for each extra day. ***Elemental Mind Meditation (2m, 1wp; Simple, Instant) Can roll (Intelligence + Lore) to perfectly recall something; one success recalls a hurried conversation from a few years ago, while five allows recall of events from early childhood. 6+ can even allow him to recall events which happened whilst he was still in his mother's womb. ***Elemental Bolt Attack (1m/2L; Simple, Instant) Fires a bolt of elemental energy at a target, targeted with (Dexterity + Athletics). Inflicts 2L per mote spent up to a maximum of his Stamina. This being the Air version, the bolt buffets the target, imposing a -2 internal penalty to their next action. **Sail: ***Hurricane-Predicting Glance (2m; Simple, Instant) Fernando can predict the weather flawlessly. ***Storm-Outrunning Technique (4m; Reflexive, Scene-Long) Doubles his plane's rate of movement for a scene. ***Deck-Striding Technique (4m or 7m; Reflexive, Touch, Scene-Long) While using this Charm (in its 4m version, Fernando can make any normal movements on his airplanes, no matter how rough the turbulence or the maneuvers being made to evade attack. It negates any movement penalties associated with environmental effects. If Fernando pays 7m, he can move anywhere on the plane, even impossible movements such as standing upside down on the wing in-flight to repair the engine. He can also spend the same amount of motes to grant these abilities to others, such as enchanting a mechanic to fix the engine while he keeps the plane aloft. *'Join Battle:' 3 *'Attacks:' **Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 2B, Defense 3, Rate 3 **Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 2B, Defense -, Rate 1 **Elemental Bolt Attack: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 2L or 4L, Defense -, Rate 1 *'Health Levels:' -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap *'Dodge DV: ' 4 / Willpower: 7 *'Essence: ' 3 *'Personal Essence:' 10/ Peripheral Essence: 26 *'Committed Essence:' 0 *'Intimacies:' Wealth (Greedy desire,) The Green Dragon (Romantic Aspirations,) Rio de Janiero (Fond memories) *'Other Notes:' Fernando is not a killer like the other men in his circle. He's not a ruthless man by nature, though he is of course a criminal, and has seen (and ordered) his fair share of roughing-up. He has a taste for expensive and valuable things, and once Lin Lei shared her explanations about the nature of the Manses they had felt, it was Fernando's idea to find the most valuable one and try this 'attunement' thing to it. He figures that if you magically own a place, it should be easy enough to use magic to legally own it, too. Category:Exalted: The Awakening